Gold prices are trading not far from unchanged levels in early U.S. dealings Monday. The yellow metal has been trading sideways at lower levels for the past three weeks, after hitting a 5.5-year low in mid-July. This suggests the sellers have become exhausted. However, the gold market bulls still have some very heavy lifting to do to improve the chart posture of their market. December Comex gold was last up $0.90 at $1,095.00 an ounce. September Comex silver was last up $0.064 at $14.885 an ounce.
In overnight news, there was another downbeat economic report coming out of the world’s second-largest economy. China’s exports in July were down 8.3%, year-on-year, while imports were down 8.1% in the same period. Also, China’s consumer price index was up 1.6% in July from last year, but producer prices were down 5.4% in the same period. This news helped to pressure European stock markets Monday. However, China’s own stock market rallied on ideas the Chinese government will continue to prop up its equities market.
The Federal Reserve’s number-two official Stanley Fischer said in a Bloomberg TV interview Monday morning that the U.S. economy is nearing full employment and although inflation is presently low, that’s just temporary due to falling commodity prices. He said the Fed should still be vigilant on inflation. He said the Fed has been extremely expansionary in its monetary policy. These remarks fall into the camp of the U.S. monetary policy hawks.
